Several hundred people marched from Mason Temple in Memphis Wednesday evening in protest of President Donald Trump’s executive order banning immigrants from certain countries for as long as 120 days.(Photo: Chris Herrington/The Commercial Appeal)Buy Photo

Memphis immigration advocacy groups, labor organizations and other activists plan a May 1 march as part of an ongoing protest against Trump administration immigration policies.

The event is part of a national "Day Without Immigrants." Organizers are asking people to stay home from work and school and to avoid shopping.

The point is to show people what life would be like without immigrants, said Jose Salazar, one of the Memphis protest leaders.

"It's not about people liking us, but people seeing that they really need us in this country," he said.

The 25-year-old was brought from Mexico as a child and is part of a younger generation of immigration activists who publicly declared their unauthorized immigration status. In 2012, for instance, Salazar was among the group that reenacted the Walk Against Fear, the 1966 march of James Meredith from Memphis to Jackson, Mississippi.

Salazar said he'd stepped back from activism in the past few years to focus on jobs in retail and cooking. "But now that Trump came in office, I started seeing all the fear in the people... I felt like it was time for me to come back into the movement."

Cosecha describes itself as a nonviolent movement fighting for "permanent protection, dignity and respect" for unauthorized immigrants. The group's name means "harvest" in Spanish and draws on farmworker activism. It launched publicly in July 2015, according to its website.

Though both Salazar and the Cosecha organization are young, the group has more established supporters, including the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center and social services organization Latino Memphis. Representatives of these groups and several others appeared alongside Salazar at a Monday evening news conference at historic Clayborn Temple in Downtown.

The current immigration fight is similar to the struggles of African-Americans, said Brad Watkins, executive director of Mid-South Peace and Justice Center.

"Our undocumented brothers and sisters suffer from the same militarization of police, the same unfair treatment by criminal justice system and families that are being divided by inhumane and cruel deportations."

Organizers are calling for supporters to gather at 5 p.m. on May 1 at Clayborn Temple. They'll then walk to the National Civil Rights Museum.

The previous day, April 30, the Workers Interfaith Network plans a rally from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Health Sciences Park to support workers rights.

Longstanding issues around immigration have gained additional attention under the administration of President Trump, who campaigned on promises to build a big border wall with Mexico, to expel millions of people living here illegally and to stop their children from being recognized as U.S. citizens.